Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

So we’ll see how it evolves. But I think we’ve been pleased with the recent trends, and October is on pace with the latter part of Q3.

Chris Abate: Yes, Bose, I’d add just another way of expressing that. The jumbo borrowers certainly what we’ve seen from an underwriting standpoint, they were well qualified with a 3% tenure, and they’re well qualified with a 46 tenure. So I don’t think we’ve seen much in the way of slower volumes, especially for purchase activity, but we’ll have to wait and see if things right out.

Bose George: Okay, great. That’s helpful. Thanks. And then can you talk a little bit about the bulk purchasing opportunity? Do you think this could end up being fairly meaningful? How do the economics compare with your regular flow business?

Chris Abate: We continue to be optimistic about those continuing to come out, Bose. I think we’re a particularly strong bid for ball for a few reasons. Number one, just our operational history with more and more of the sellers has being around the hoop on a flow basis, we think positions as well. To be a helpful partner to those sellers when it’s time to explore a bulk sale. As we talked about those types of loans [indiscernible] discount have pared particularly well in [technical difficulty] securitization. So I think we naturally have a pretty strong bid for those types of loans to complement our on the run, or on the run production. So it’s definitely a big opportunity. I think, certainly, obviously, with the evolving capital rules that will be a big deal.

If we see a little bit of a rally in rates from here that could unlock more frankly, as dollar prices trend up a little bit typically for those that may not be hedging their positions on more seasoned loans. So it definitely moved the needle. And frankly, we think is the banks in general start to get their head around the rules. And frankly, they get more at bats with us on the flow side. That will make the bulk opportunities hopefully come with even more speed than they have over the past quarter or so.

Bose George: Okay, great. Thanks a lot.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Don Fandetti with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Don Fandetti: Hi. Can you talk about your credit outlook for the BPL investment portfolio? Delinquencies improved a little bit this quarter, but I guess you’re doing some modifications. And are borrowers having a lot of success in terms of going from variable to fixed, is that kind of working out well?

Chris Abate: Yes, good questions. I can take that. I think at the — starting at the high-level, I think a lot of the trends we’re seeing this quarter are consistent with ones we’ve been speaking to the past quarter or two. I think in general, business plans are going fine. We are seeing pockets of stress with sponsors, some of whom have been able to bring additional capital to the table to rebalance. And other situations, frankly, Don, where it’s been the right project, but the wrong sponsor and we’ve had to bring in outside equity. And I think we’ve been pleased with the speed with which we’ve done that. Just to give you a sense for the speed of resolution, in terms of the 90 plus book at the end of June, we’ve worked through over half of those loans at this point, either explicitly or are in contract and expect to be have the rest of that book resolved by the end of the year.